This is an essay I give to my students who have played for a
couple of years, are starting to progress, and are a bit limited by
playing the mouthpiece that came with their horn. I know that more
than a couple of teachers would be unhappy with the following advice,
but I think that it is wise to have the player experience playing on
a larger mouthpiece as they get physically bigger. We rarely wear the
same shoes when we are twelve years old as we do as adults. After a
year or two on the Schilke 14, the teacher, and even the student, can
then know enough about the individual player to fine tune the
mouthpiece choice and launch the poor kid into The Crusade For The
Ultimate Mouthpiece.

. . . . . . .

After playing for a couple of years, it is usually wise for (the
parents of) a young trumpet player to purchase a different
mouthpiece. Generally, the mouthpieces that come with the horn or are
provided beginning players are designed to facilitate easy production
of sound by untrained lips, at the expense of tone quality and color.

Trumpet mouthpieces are a combination of several variables--the
rim diameter and contour; the shape, size, and depth of the cup; the
size of the bore; and the size and shape of the backbore. Each of
these variables effects the tone quality and ease of producing the
notes. The tiniest changes (measured usually in tenths of a
millimeter or thousandths of an inch) can have considerable effect.
Choosing the "best" mouthpiece is an exercise in balancing different
consequences, depending on your strengths and weaknesses as a player,
your taste, and the type of playing you do most.

There are hundreds of trumpet mouthpieces available from many,
many different manufacturers. I recommend (and play) a Schilke
mouthpiece because the range is comprehensive (both bigger and
smaller than almost anybody else's) and they are designed and labeled
in a logical and systematic fashion. They are extremely consistent
and of very high quality manufacture. The fact that I also play a
Schilke trumpet may have something to do with it, though I played a
Schilke mouthpiece before I bought their horn. Bach mouthpieces may
be more popular and, at least in the more common models, more readily
available, but they have eccentricities in their design and can be
inconsistent (i.e., one Bach 7C may be different from another Bach
7C). Schilke mouthpieces are now essentially priced the same or even
a tad less than Bach. No high quality mouthpiece costs less. A list
and a description of their stock mouthpieces is available at
Schilke_Mouthpieces.
It is extremely informative and provides information about all 48 (!)
of their stock trumpet mouthpieces. Likewise, Renold Schilke's essay
on choosing a mouthpiece is also available in
How
to Select a Brass Mouthpiece.

Generally, a larger mouthpiece produces a higher quality tone.
Traditionally, the rule of thumb (for which there are many
counter-examples) is that you should play on the largest equipment,
both mouthpiece and trumpet, that you can fill up. So the first step
a young trumpet player usually takes is moving to a larger
mouthpiece. Initially a larger mouthpiece will make playing high
notes more difficult until the player learns to compensate by using
more air to reach higher pitches. The tone quality improves almost
immediately and the range is shortly restored.

In the Schilke numbering system the larger the number, the larger
the mouthpiece. The Bach labeling system (such as it is) is the
opposite. The cup diameter of a Bach 7C is about the same as a
Schilke 11. I believe that almost all young students, after a couple
of years of playing, could benefit from playing a Schilke 14 and,
bluntly, I would recommend you buy one. Traditionally, the first move
was from a Bach 7C to a Bach 3C, however at least with the more
recent Bach mouthpieces, the 7C and the 3C are essentially the same
diameter, although they differ significantly otherwise (rim shape,
cup shape and depth, etc.). A greatly enlarged computer generated
tracing (7C vs. 3C) of
the two mouthpieces has been made by mouthpiece maker and expert Jeff
Parke and pretty much proves the point. Skip the Bach 3C.

Strange as it sounds, trying out a particular mouthpiece, after
only having played a couple of years, is not all that advantageous
because all of the new mouthpieces are going to sound and feel
different from what you are used to. The temptation is to pick the
one which feels the most familiar, but that may not be your best
choice. You may need to grow into the mouthpiece, even though it is
initially more difficult. Then, as you get to be a stronger, more
sophisticated player, and you can analyze your own strengths and
needs as a player, you can fine-tune your mouthpiece selection. If
you desire a bigger, darker tone, you can increase the cup diameter,
cup depth and the backbore, etc. At that point, trying the mouthpiece
is critical. The systematic nature of the Schilke system, however,
aids in making such adjustments.